The leaders of many of Europe’s biggest countries came to Paris on Monday in an effort to forge a strategy for their own security, as President Trump’s envoys prepared for talks with Russia over ending the war in Ukraine without them.
The meeting in Paris was pulled together hastily after the first visit to Europe last week by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which left European leaders alarmed by both the tone and message of the new Trump administration and what it might hold for the continent.
European leaders were shocked by the hostility of Mr. Vance’s scathing speech in Munich criticizing Europe’s exclusion of far-right groups from power, and the sudden American plans to begin peace talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia, starting on Tuesday, without the presence of Ukrainian or European leaders.
The meetings with the new U.S. officials sparked fear that the United States wants to pull thousands of troops out of Europe, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested in Brussels last week, but on a timetable that would leave Europe vulnerable to an aggressive Russia, and that Mr. Trump will cut a deal with Mr. Putin over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans.
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